1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for providing authored data such as books, music, movies and the like to users via data communication means, more specifically relates to a method capable of disclosing a portion but restricting disclosure or all of the authored data when providing authored data to a user, or a method which allows disclosure of the authored data but restricts copying or printing thereof. The present invention also relates to software capable of performing such a method, a computer-readable recording medium containing such software and a data communication system including a computer capable of performing such a method.
2. Description of Related Art
With the great advances in data communication technology and installation of data communication networks in recent years, retailers are now able to use means for mutual transmission/reception of data through a plurality of computers connected to data communication means such as the internet to introduce products or services, and customers can also order products or services over the internet. The products or services capable of being provided by these methods are extremely wide-ranging, so that almost all types of products and services can be sold through such data communication means.
As patents relating to electronic commerce performed through data communication means, there are U.S. Pat. No. 5,794,207 of Walker et al. relating to a reverse auction procedure performed between vendors of airline tickets and potential purchasers who wish to purchase airline tickets under certain conditions, U.S. Pat. No. 5,895,454 of Harrington relating to a cart for temporarily storing articles which are to be purchased in on-line shopping, and Japanese Patent Application, First Publication No. Sho 10-320470 of NTT Corp. relating to a method for displaying advertisements correlated with a map. Patents relating to electronic commerce over the internet as typified by these patents are similar in that the products which are to be offered are readily apparent to the buyer. For example, in the case of airline tickets, the product can be almost completely identified by specifying the origin, destination, date and time, and price, and there is usually not much need to go into any further detail.
However, when buying authored works through data communication means, there are problems which are characteristic of such authored works as described below.
That is, taking books as an example, the potential buyer may wish to decide whether or not to buy the book only after having first confirmed whether or not the book contains the information which is sought. Therefore, when purchasing printed books at a bookstore, customers will usually browse through books before deciding on which to buy. Additionally, the portion which a potential buyer will wish to read in order to decide whether the required information is written may differ according to what interests the potential buyer, so that this decision will not always be possible by showing a predetermined portion such as the table of contents.
If in order to respond to such needs for the sales of books using data communication means, the vendor opens the entire contents of a book for browsing by potential buyers through the data communication means, thus enabling the entire contents to be freely viewed, the potential buyer may then read through the entire contents of the book on-line, thus obviating the need to purchase the book. Additionally, the user may copy the entire data onto a local computer for reading at leisure at a later time, in which case the book will likewise not be purchased and put the vendor at a loss. That is, if the content offered by a vendor over the internet is too detailed, the buyer may obtain the information without bothering to pay for it, so that the book will not sell, and making it unprofitable for the vendor.
Due to this problem, when selling books through data communication means, it is often the case that only the cover or table of contents of a book is shown, with the actual content of the book being unviewable. In this case, the potential buyer is forced to decide whether or not to purchase a book without even information which can be obtained by browsing in a bookstore, thus inconveniencing the potential buyer and reducing the advantage of sales through data communication means.
While the above explains the problems with the example of book sales, similar problems exist with regard to sales of music and movies, as well as certificates and public documents issued by government agencies. For example, with regard to the sales of music data, it is advantageous for the purchaser to offer the entire data prior to sales, but this is risky for the vendor, and the risk is much greater if the data is easily copied. On the other hand, if the data which is made available prior to sales is severely limited, this is safe for the vendor but inconvenient for the purchaser. Additionally, in the case of public documents, there are cases where free browsing of a register overall is allowable, but the preparation of copies is charged.
The present invention has the purpose of solving the above-described problems which occur when selling authored data over the internet or the like, and more specifically has the purpose of enabling potential buyers to freely browse desired portions of an authored work for making appropriate judgments as to whether or not to purchase the authored work, while enabling the vendor to prevent the authored work from being taken without payment such as by having all of the data copied, thus balancing the demands of both sides and allowing for trouble-free sales.
Furthermore, according to an embodiment of the present invention, various options can be set according to the needs of the vendor, such as the range of the authored work which is offered freely to the customer, and the conditions whereby browsing and/or copying is restricted.